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What’s the Best Magic Drinking Game

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I came across a post on Reddit today linking to a Magic drinking game. Now, I like me a good drinking game, but this one has just too much going on in the rules department. It's inelegant, and would take a while to memorize the whole list. Not to mention that I'd probably just forget them as I played anyway.

A sweet way to drink and game that has been posted on QuietSpeculation before is the Booze Cube. The design is fun, even if the power level isn't super consistent. The set is definitely good for a few laughs, at the very least.

A friend of mine told me that back when he played they used to play where you could shotgun a beer to generate three mana. Beer Lotus as I'm sure they called it. It's a testament to the type of person I am that my first thought was to play Storm in that format, but I digress. This is a great way to get drunk, but probably not the best activity to engage in with expensive Magic cards.

While researching this topic, I came across a neat variant that is relatively lean on rules and sounds like a pretty good time.

-Decide on a prize that everyone chips in for. (Bragging rights included.)
-Everyone starts at 0 life, whenever a player takes damage that would put their life total below 0, instead of losing the game, they drink once for each damage. (You can gain life, effectively defending you from drinking that many times)
-Drink once during your upkeep for every 2 poison counters on you.
-Drink a full bottle whenever you run out of cards in you library, then reshuffle your graveyard into your library.
-Even if all of your cards are exiled, you may still "play" as long as you like.
-You may forfeit at any time.
-You are eliminated if you vomit or pass out.

What I really like about this game is that you're not just playing Magic and drinking, you're actually just playing a sweet drining game with Magic cards. I think the rules read better as you being at one life, and you can choose to drink instead of dying, but that's a pretty minor nitpick.

Then there is, of course, the old regular cube while enjoying a beer or two. Does anybody else know of any sweet Magic drinking games? Please share them in the comments!

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Ryan Overturf

Ryan has been playing Magic since Legions and playing competitively since Lorwyn. While he fancies himself a Legacy specialist, you'll always find him with strong opinions on every constructed format.

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10 thoughts on “What’s the Best Magic Drinking Game

  1. I really wish you would write more about investing, speculating and/or magic trends as apposed to articles like this. Your articles as of late have really lacked sustenance.

    1. If you’re looking for finance pieces, check out my last two insider articles. We don’t offer much in the way of finance tips on the free side.

  2. Draw before you untap? Take a drink.
    Mess up the turn order accidentally? Take a drink.
    Declare combat after combat step? Take a drink.
    Screw up an effect? Take a drink.
    Create a hostile environment? Chug 2.

    You get the idea. #BeABetterGamer

  3. We made up a game that basically got you drunk while opening a box of Magic cards.

    3 – 4 players

    To keep everyone honest, we pour 1 shot of beer to keep in front of you and it must be full at all times. If you try to proceed and it is empty, two beer shots.

    You begin by placing every pack in a random order face down on the table. Each round, everyone rolls a die for order of pack selection. If your die falls from the table, you do a beer shot. Everyone then selects a pack. If you match another pack, both matching players do a beer shot. If you have four players and three match, odd man out does one. If everyone matches, then everyone drinks the remainder of their beer.

    All this is just before you open packs where you drink based on certain cards (like one with an ugly picture or a particular cycle of uncommon cards). You drink if you get a foil. Another for a foil uncommon. Yet another for a foil rare.

    When you get to rare, based on price, your card will fall into 5 tiers:

    5. Bulk – Force someone to do a beer shot.
    4. $1 – $3 – Take a beer shot
    3 Good ($4 – $7) – Do a liquor shot of your choice.
    2. Great ($8 – $15) – Do a liquor shot where the other players place different liquors all adding up to a double shot that usually has 6 different liquors.
    1. The best to be expected (+$16) – the other players are now allowed to put any item found in the fridge along with liquors until your double shot is filled up. This has included Tabasco, egg whites, coffee grounds… you get the picture.

    There are lots of little on the fly rules I’m not thinking of.

    I don’t know where it started but it became a monthly ritual while I lived with guys that all played Magic casually over ten years ago. We still do this every once a while but nowhere near the frequency. It was a blast and wasn’t as expensive as you think if you wanted to sell some of the cards.

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